Five Minutes To Midnight
by Cadence Black
Summary: Lesson…lesson…oh bugger. What are we talking about again? Response to the FictionAlley February Valentines Day challenge, Ginny Weasley wants to schnoogle Prof. Sinistra. Contains hints of femmeslash.


**FIC TITLE: Five Minutes To Midnight**  
**SENTENCE: Ginny Weasley wants to schnoogle (or in this case, cuddle) Professor Sinistra**  
**RATING: **  
**AUTHOR'S NOTES/ARTIST'S NOTES: This ficlet was written for the FictionAlley February "Valentines Day" challenge…For this particular ficlet, I have deemed Professor Sinistra to be fairly young…a couple of years younger than Snape. I am truly not sure if this is canonically correct or not…regardless. Enjoy!  
**

Astronomy was always hell on Ginny's nerves. From the first moment she saw the lovely Professor Sinistra, she was enamored. The woman was tall and graceful, with long dark curls that framed her heart shaped face, and a darling, curvy body. Ginny couldn't help but stare.

She had never felt attracted to another woman before, and she certainly didn't consider herself gay. After all, it was normal to have strange crushes…right? But she couldn't help but think that what she felt for Professor Sinistra was more than a harmless crush.

No. She couldn't think like this. She needed to concentrate. '_Lesson…lesson…oh bugger. What are we talking about again?_' She gave up and begin to doodle on a spare piece of parchment, then started as she heard a melodic voice call her name. "Ginny…"

"Wha…" she said distractedly, looking up from her doodles…into the eyes of none other than Professor Sinistra.

"Stay with us please, Ginny," the pretty Professor said with a tinkling laugh. Other students snickered with her, and Ginny frowned at them. They were laughing to be cruel…Professor Sinistra was just laughing. Ginny sighed softly as the musical sound rang in her ears and went back to doodling. She drew a little heart and in the middle wrote an 'S'. After a moment of consideration, she carefully added a 'G' to it, smiling sadly at her handiwork. She jumped slightly as Luna tapped her on the arm.

"Hey," Luna said, her wide eyes boring into Ginny's, "is everything okay?"

Ginny sighed unhappily. "No," she said softly, scribbling out the small heart on the corner of her parchment.

Luna wrinkled her nose. "No?" she asked quizzically.

Ginny looked at her for a moment. Luna was…attractive, in her own way. Why couldn't she have been attracted to Luna instead of her Astronomy professor? Luna was now giving her a strange, studying look, almost as if she were a Scrumpled Corkack or whatever those creatures she was constantly talking about were. "What's wrong?" Luna urged her quietly. Professor Sinistra cleared her throat, and the two girls jumped guiltily.

Professor Sinistra gave them both a stern look. "Is there something you ladies would like to say?"

Both girls blinked. "N-n-no Professor," they said quietly, stammering a bit in their embarrassment at being caught. Professor Sinistra gave them her version of the evil eye, which wasn't really very scary, and the two girls tried to maintain the look of fear on their faces while desperately attempting to not laugh. They succeeded.

After class ended, Ginny tried as hard as she could to escape Luna and her tirade of questions. However, someone beat her to it.

"Ginny," Professor Sinistra called out to her as she headed for the door, "I'd like a word."

Ginny paled slightly at the thought of being alone with the object of her affection, but nodded slightly and headed toward the Professor's desk. Luna looked after her for a moment, and then exited the room.

"Please sit," Professor Sinistra said, waving her hand at the desk in front of her own. Sitting down herself, she stared at Ginny for one long, hard moment. Finally, she spoke. "Is something bothering you?" she asked, looking intently at her student. Ginny chuckled nervously.

"Why would you think that, Professor?" she asked with a fake little laugh that didn't reach her eyes. She twirled a piece of hair around her pointer finger, a nervous habit of hers.

"Oh, I don't know," Professor Sinistra said softly. "You seem distracted, your work is sloppy at best and nonexistent at worse, and you've been acting rather strangely. Now tell me, is anything wrong?"

The concerned look in her beloved Professor's chocolately brown eyes almost broke Ginny. With one deep breath, she smiled another smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "No, professor," she said, forcing her voice to sound chipper. "Everything's perfectly fine."

From the look on her face, Ginny could tell that Professor Sinistra didn't believe her. She sat back and waved her hand at the door, a tired look on her young face. "You can go," she said softly.

Ginny stood and walked softly to the door. As she reached for the handle, Professor Sinistra's voice sounded behind her.

"Ginny?" she said softly. Ginny turned to look at her. The lovely young professor smiled a sad smile.

"It would never work," she said softly. "It –could- never work."

Ginny stared at her in disbelief for a moment before looking at her feet. "I know," she said, just as quietly, and slipped out the door without another word.

Professor Sinistra stared at the spot the redheaded girl had occupied not a moment before. "I hope so," she murmured under her breath, and buried her head in her hands.

Merlin…when did life get so hard?

A/N: I hope you liked it…if so, review. If not…still review? Please?

xoxo

Cadence Black


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